auto darkening helmets

Hi. I'm looking into buying an auto darkenting helmet. Tired of flipping and getting flashed. I saw some for purty cheap and wondered what others thought about them. I have always learned that you get what you pay for, but i wasn't sure about this. I weld maybe a couple times a month. Maybe i should take my own advice. Any thoughts? here's the link

I weld for a living, so I thought I'd offer my 2 cents. (I used to do landscaping, enjoyed it even, that's why I look at this board from time to time)

The last time I went to my eye doctor, he told me that he could see that I'd been 'flashed' a few times. I told him I'm very careful about that and I couldn't even remember the last time it had happened. He then asked what kind of helmet I used, and I told him it was an automatic one. He suggested I check the spec's of my helmet, because a study that he had been involved in with a university where he teaches part time, had found that some of the less expensive helmets had a darkening rate of less than 1/20,000th of a second.

He continued to explain that anything less than that rate allowed the user's eyes to be subjected to dangerous flashes of light from the welding arc before the lens darkened. It can't be detected by the user as it is happening, but over a period of time it will damage the eyes just as badly as if you had 'flashed' yourself.

Probably not as big of a concern to someone who only welds occasionally, but still, you only have one set of eyes!

chaikwa, thanks very much for your post, you make a good point. In getting the auto-darkening helmet i was hoping to eliminate the flashes that i get from my current helmet. I don't get the lens down in time or flip it up too soon. A relative told me that the first "cheap" one that he tried did not darken fast enough and he could see it. He replaced it. I am an occasional welder so I think I might be ok with a cheap one. I'll try to look into the studies.